Super Mario Odyssey hands on: boundless joy and invention

These are trying times on the world stage, with many despairing at the direction we seem to be heading in. Luckily, a hero is about to emerge to lead us back into the light and remind us what hope is – and that hero is a cartoon plumber with a fancy new hat.

You see, Super Mario Odyssey isn't a video game – it is pure happiness distilled into digital form. Everything about the game – or at least the two demo builds Nintendo presented at E3 2017 – sparks joy on an almost primeval level. Between the colourful and ingeniously designed worlds, the uplifting music, the sublime new ways Mario interacts with his surroundings, and the very existence of new companion character Cappy, we're pretty sure it's impossible not to crack a smile while playing.

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Ah, Cappy. We love Cappy. When the first trailers for Odyssey dropped, showing Mario clobbering enemies by throwing his signature red hat at them, or using it as a hovering platform to reach new areas, we thought it was a weird mechanic, but one that Nintendo would probably find fun uses for. We had no idea how fun though.

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While Cappy can be used as a weapon, he can also possess practically anything or anyone. Throw him at a fire hydrant, you become that hydrant, spraying water around. Fling Cappy at a telescope, and you rocket into the air for a bird's eye view of the world. At another character? Now you are that character, with whatever abilities they have – particularly useful in collecting some of the Power Moons, the game's chief collectible. At a manhole cover? Congratulations, you can now walk around as a manhole cover. Oh, there's the small benefit of opening up a warp tunnel to a mini-game, but whatever. Manhole Cover Mario!

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Such de-Cappy-tations don't just help solve puzzles or unlock new areas, they provide new ways to play. You might want the platforming challenge of hopping over a series of precarious ledges, or prefer to steal the bodily autonomy of a Bullet Bill and just fly around. Oh, and you can blow stuff up if you fly into it, because you're a Bullet Bill.

When you do use Cappy as a weapon, you don't throw so much as pilot him. A regular attack hits anything in a straight line ahead of you, but flicking both Joy-Cons to the side sends him spinning in circles around you, a whirling dervish knocking Goombas for six. Other actions guide how he moves in different ways, and if you hold the attack button, Cappy hovers mid-air, creating that now-iconic floating platform for Mario to bounce on.

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Mario himself is still the focus though, and he makes his return for all the agility you'd expect of an Olympian, packed into a chubby cartoon plumber. He runs, hops and ground pounds and the first time you pull off his signature triple jump and you hear that "Wa-hoo!", your heart will begin to feel again.

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From a sheer scale perspective, this is the most impressive Mario game ever created. Odyssey's huge worlds are crammed with dozens of objectives, mini-games, shops, people to help, and secrets to uncover. Each area is based on a location from the real world, with our E3 hands on taking us to New Donk City – no prizes for guessing its inspiration – and the Sand Kingdom, a sort of nebulous desert world Meso-American influences.

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It is still very strange to see the animated Mario walking around next to more realistically proportioned human characters in New Donk City, but spend a little time there and you'll notice how much the setting still fits in Mario's aesthetic – street crossing signs are actually coin boxes you can jump into from below. Plus, if the clash between Mario and his surroundings is still too jarring for you, you can buy Mario a dapper pinstripe suit and matching hat – Cappy changes to become part of whichever ensemble Mario is rocking – and hop about like a member of the Rat Pack on mushrooms.

The contrast of styles is less notable in Sand Kingdom, which feels like more of a traditional 3D Super Mario world, but it's no smaller or less crammed with secrets. As you explore any of the core lands – the game's story, always the least important part of a Mario game, involves the plumber going on a world tour in his new ship, the Odyssey, after Bowser once again runs off with Peach – you'll also unlock checkpoints that you can teleport back to at will, which makes the massive locations more managable.

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Ultimately, Super Mario Odyssey is a concentration of everything great about the Super Mario series over the years. The free-roaming platforming through open 3D worlds is most obviously an evolution of the core series' direction since Super Mario 64 broke Mario free from the two dimensions of his side-scrolling days, but the vast new worlds evoke the openness of Super Mario Galaxy's weird universe. Those 2D origins haven't been forgotten either – certain warp pipes return Mario to his sprite based roots, with short, traditional platforming sections taking place on the walls of Odyssey's locations. There's a great bit in Sand Kingdom where you go 2D on the outer wall of a cylindrical tower, climbing it by hopping up the graffiti and plastering that encircle its exterior. It's such a simple touch, but works absolutely brilliantly.

There were clearly a few features being held back in the E3 builds – crushingly, we couldn't possess a taxi cab in New Donk City – but even at this relatively early stage, it's clear Super Mario Odyssey is going to be a contender for the top slot on a lot of 'Game of the Year' lists. Trust us though when we say nothing else will touch it when it comes to pure delight.